52 minutes ago, Last Dreamer said:

It's the one from my least favourite music genres, so many songs from this compilation were included in "worst" lists.

Which song to you hate the most?

44 minutes ago, King Rollo said:

Could one of you update the opening post when you have some time? My classic synthpop collection still isn't on there. Thanks.

Will do, KR. I think it's missing a few updates.

Great job Dan!

Disc 1 is currently accompanying my run 🏃‍♀️

Love this one, was always in safe hands with Dan compiling it 💚

The next 'Buzzjack presents' collection takes us back to 1982 when the new wave music of the previous three years was petering out a bit and pop music gained a resurgence. The Top Of The Pops studio had more of a party atmosphere with both performers and the audience wearing colourful outfits. This four disc compilation contains all the highlights from the singles chart that year with all but four of the songs reaching the top 20.

Disc 1:

This is the pop disc so we start with the best selling single of the year, 'Come On Eileen', which is followed by five more number 1 singles, the last of which is by Bucks Fizz who had two chart toppers and 'The Land Of Make Believe' is the one I chose to include. They had won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK the previous year, and this year's entry by Bardo is up next. A dose of Americana from Tony Basil and the J Geils Band is followed by the emerging English pop groups Wham!, ABC and Haircut 100 as well as Spandau Ballet who'd been around a little longer. Modern Romance and Kid Creole provide some salsa rhythms before we get to five female led singles which include two new girl groups, Toto Coelo and Bananarama. The disc finishes with two more number 1s from Shakin' Stevens and Captain Sensible.

Disc 2:

This is the new wave and synthpop disc starting with the other act who had two number 1s and 'Town Called Malice' had to be the Jam single to be included. It was only last week that a cover version of 'Rock The Casbah' won the retro song contest and the original is up next. Future husband and wife Jim Kerr and Chrissie Hynde are back to back with their respective groups while 'Party Fears Two' and 'Golden Brown' are two of the most memorable songs from the year. The synthpop starts with one of New Order's early hits 'Temptation', Vince Clarke's new group Yazoo and his old one, Depeche Mode, showing they can cope without him. 'Mad World' and 'Living On The Ceiling' are both classics from the genre while 'The Damned Don't Cry' by Visage is a gem that might be a new discovery for some. 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' and 'Save A Prayer' are my favourite singles by Soft Cell and Duran Duran respectively. The disc concludes in Germany with 'Da Da Da' and the number 1 single 'The Model'.

Disc 3:

The three number 1 singles that start disc 3 from Culture Club, Musical Youth and Eddy Grant all have a hint of reggae about them while the next four songs fit loosely into the dance and hip hop genres. I made sure I picked the 12 inch version of 'The Message'. There's some post disco from Odyssey and Donna Summer with her superb cover of the Jon & Vangelis song 'State Of Independence'. Things get funky from 'Get Down On It' all the way down to 'Just An illusion'. Hall and Oates and the Steve Miller Band combined funk and rock so they are up next, transitioning us the the rock music that concludes the disc, culminating with the movie theme 'Eye Of The Tiger' by Survivor.

Disc 4:

This is where the ballads and slow paced songs reside, starting with some rather cheesy number 1 singles which haven't aged quite as well as the rest of the music on the collection. The English version of Eurovision winner 'A Little Peace' is not on Spotify so we get the German language version instead. The soul music is provided by Fat Larry's Band and two singers from the 60s making a comeback, Dionne Warwick and Marvin Gaye. Hot Chocolates' tale of playground love, 'It Started With A Kiss', is here along with Chas & Dave's finest song 'Ain't No Pleasing You'. Two personal favourites of mine, the Trevor Horn produced 'Give Me Back My Heart' by Dollar and what I think is Abba's best song 'The Day Before You Came' are next, both clocking in at more than five minutes in length. The soft rock is provided by Foreigner and Chicago while 'Las Palabras De Amor' is an overlooked song from Queen's vast back catalogue. Things slow down even further with the next three songs, Dire Straits' epic 'Private Investigations', an unlikely number 2 hit, and the haunting sounds of 'Ghosts' and the theme from 'Harry's Game' which you will know from Chicane's 'Saltwater', one of the songs on the last 'Buzzjack presents' compilation. We finish with 'A Winter's Tale' which is now a staple of Christmas playlists.

Go and have a listen now to the playlists below. Thanks to Colm for providing the cover art.

Disc 1:

Disc 2:

Disc 3:

Disc 4:

The whole playlist:

Unsurprisingly I am loving the look of Disc 2 in particular!

A stellar job Rollo, many thanks. I had a look through all of the other hits/classics from 1982 and I couldn't think of anything significant missing. Really nicely sequenced too and a great write-up.

Great artwork too Colm.

When I listened to this album a few days ago, it occured to me that around as much time has passed between Dizzee Rascal's Dream (which sampled Happy Talk) and today as there was time between Happy Talk and Dream. Mad.

Edited April 14Apr 14 by gooddelta

Disc 2 is solid gold. But the whole thing is a great listen with top quality sequencing (I am seeking professional help about my unhealthy obsession with good sequencing).

This is great, thanks Rollo. I'm also a big fan of Disc 2 especially - I had all but four of those songs on my iPod, and it's great to have 'Temptation' included as this was a key track for New Order prior to 'Blue Monday'.

Coming Soon ...

The latest ‘Buzzjack Presents’ edition returns once more to the heavier side of the music scene, focusing this time on ‘90s Rock and era which required a huge amount of severe editing of choice cuts. Therefore, as ever, we’re treading the fine line between ballads and the extreme Metal category and trying to represent big hits and significant milestones. Pop Punk was also dealt short shrift as it’ll likely get its own set in time.

 

The decade was a time of great upheaval and creativity in the genre, inspiring a marked shift in the styles and sounds within the scene,  and long admired underground acts surged in popularity to crossover into the mainstream. Others crafted new musical furrows and created new sub-genres that still provoke strong debate among fans as to whether or not they really are ‘Metal’. By the end of the decade the scene was almost unrecognisable from that which existed in 1990. With that, let's go on a little journey...

 

Disc One

 As 1990 dawned you could be forgiven for thinking the decade would continue to be business as usual and this first disc concentrates almost exclusively on the period of 1990-91. Metal and Rock enjoyed broad popular appeal and bands regularly had notable hits. Iron Maiden kicked of 1990 by scoring a UK #1 single and AC/DC dropped one of their most well known hits in Thunderstruck, with its famous intro. Guns n Roses were still making a reasonable claim to be the biggest Rock band in the world. But the combination of their Punk injected Glam, and the 1988 Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilsation: The Metal Years, had struck the first heavy blow for the L.A. Metal scene that had dominated the latter part of the ‘80s. Between them they had shown the world how formulaic and out of touch with the kids, the scene had become.

 

 Those same kids were starting to look elsewhere for their kicks.

 

Thrash Metal had been the most prominent alternative but bands like Slayer, Anthrax and Metallica had realised that they needed to find a new angle to survive. The rise of Grindcore and Death Metal had taken things much harder and faster then they were looking to go. At the end of the ‘80s Slayer had decided to slow things right down – it gave them a more menacing edge but the same trick played into Metallica’s more melodic strengths. They scored a big hit with Enter Sandman, followed up with a multi-million selling album and became global stars, and so began the debate over whether they were still Metal. New York’s Anthrax, who’d been born from the same melting pot that spawned Hip Hop teamed up with Chuck D and Flava Flav to cover Public Enemy’s Bring Tha Noize. They’d fused Metal and Hip Hop before but not so effectively. This interpretation was so influential it can be claimed to have inspired a generation of musicians.

 

Meanwhile, a handful of bands like Jane’s Addiction, Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers had been plugging away for a number of years with little mainstream recognition, but they were now being picked up on by MTV and college radio and they began to notch up minor hits and acclaimed albums. Further blurring the lines between what could now be defined as Rock music. Elsewhere, U2 had decamped to Germany and had a rethink after the poor reception to the excesses of the Rattle and Hum era, releasing The Fly toward the end of the year. Trent Reznor’s solo project Nine Inch Nails capitalised on the ground Ministry had broken when they welded Industrial to Metal. Head Like a Hole, from NIN’s debut album took him from the bedroom studio to MTV fame. Former Goth legends The Sisters of Mercy dropped their Vision Thing album and showed that they could ramp it up for the new decade by turning into the ‘Rock n Roll groove machine’ they always claimed to be. And, Pantera, the L.A. Glam Metal also rans, ditched their lead singer, cut their hair, switched spandex for baggy shorts and reinvented their sound, playing slower, harder and more aggressive becoming the foremost pioneers of the burgeoning Groove Metal sub-genre.

 

All of this and we’re barely at 1992.

 

 

Disc Two

 

By November 1991 you needn’t have been looking very hard to see that the times were a-changing for the Rock and Metal scene. A swelling of new sounds was pushing up from the underground and the 1991 Reading Festival, Friday bill was a pointer of things to come. Low down on the bill, between Silverfish and Chapterhouse were a decent if unspectacular Seattle band with just the one album behind them. The album, Bleach had been well received but they were overshadowed by contemporaries like Mudhoney, Pixies or Sonic Youth. The 4^th song in their set was a new unreleased song called Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was released in November that same year and would be the catalyst for a sea change in both Rock music and the entire music scene the world over. It became the de facto anthem for Generation X. The band went supernova and literally hundreds of bands, who’d been plugging away in the same scene, followed in their wake. Grunge’s had its own ‘Big 4’ Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains swiped the flag from L.A. and moved the capital to Seattle. Overnight, ‘Hair Metal’ was out of favoutr and began its painful decline.

 

Behind the Seattle bands were many more - L7, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Stone Temple Pilots all became stars in the new ‘Alternative Rock’ era with bands like Rage Against the Machine building of the Rap/Rock crossover or Manic Street Preachers who saw themselves as kindred spirits to Nirvana, despite the musical divergence.

 

Yet by 1994 things had turned again. The scene was built largely by the disaffected youth and many had grown up with personal problems of mental health. Add fame to the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster. The scene’s popularity had given a voice to many who were disenfranchised but it imploded following the death of Kurt Cobain and a desire for something else, perhaps something less introverted and more… fun.

 

In the popular consciousness of the UK,  Britpop took over the role for the more Indie inclined parts of the crowd.

 

However, there were was once again a variety of styles emerging for those who liked things heavier. In 1994 within months of each other, Korn released the groundbreaking Blind, the ripples from which wouldn’t be felt above ground for a good few years and Green Day slipped out Basket Case, another whose influence would become obvious later.  Nirvana’s drummer Dave Grohl created his polished Grunge-lite of Foo Fighters, Tool fused Prog Rock with Metal and Type O Negative added a dash of Black No.1 (as in the hair dye) to help create what has become known as Gothic Metal. Marilyn Manson created his trilogy of concept albums, the second part of which – Antichrist Superstar – turned him into conservative America’s worst nightmare and the by the 2000s the scapegoat for all the countries problems, which whatever he may be guilty of it isn’t that.

Finally by the late ‘90s the effects of Korn’s debut were plain to see – Nu-Metal had arrived in the forms of Slipknot and Limp Bizkit becoming two of the biggest bands of the era. As the decade came to an end the two biggest genres in Rock would be Nu-Metal and Pop Punk

 

One

Two

The Lot

I seem to have it engraved in my mind that 'Enter Sandman' was a late 80's song, when it is actually 1991.

32 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

I seem to have it engraved in my mind that 'Enter Sandman' was a late 80's song, when it is actually 1991.

I remember it all too clearly. It came out just before my birthday, my friend bought The Black Album and Sepultura's Arise on tape and we went over the park with a case of beers and a stereo to do a photo shoot for the band we were in.